Biology

This fox-like, quadruped Pokémon is covered with a thick, luxurious golden-white fur. It has nine, long tails, each of which is tipped with pale orange. There is a fluffy crest atop its head, and a small mane around its neck. Ninetales has gleaming red eyes that are said to give it the ability to control minds. Its ears are pointed, and it has long, slender legs with three-toed paws.

Ninetales is a very vengeful Pokémon that has been known to curse those who mistreat it. This intelligent Pokémon is able to understand human speech easily. It can live for 1,000 years, due to the energy within its nine tails, each of which is said to have a different mystical power. It can be found living in grasslands.

In Just Waiting On A Friend, a very old Ninetales befriended Brock, who bore a resemblance to her long lost master. This Ninetales created all sorts of illusions, including one of a woman through which it spoke.

In the Pokémon Battle Frontier manga

In the TCG

Game data

NPC appearances

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Ninetales cast a curse on a human that would turn it into a Pokémon, bringing on many natural disasters. The player is blamed for this and travels to the home of Ninetales at the top of Mt. Freeze to learn the truth. Ninetales later appears when Gengar wishes to right what he did to Gardevoir. He gives Gengar the Nine-tailed Crest and sending him and the player to Murky Cave.

Ninetales have been shown on several occasions to be able to swim, most notably in Mewtwo Returns and The Power Of One, which is unusual for most Fire types.

Origin

Ninetales, like Vulpix, is based on a fox. However, in Japan there are certain legends concerning foxes, or kitsune, as they are known there. One such legend which relates to Ninetales the most is how many-tailed foxes can breathe fire, create illusions, and have extremely long lifespans. After living a long time, these creatures take on spirit forms, which may be the reason why these two related Pokémon can learn Ghost-type moves. In particular, Ninetales is based on the 九尾の狐, the nine-tailed fox, which is a fox of advanced age whose fur has turned silver-gold. It is said to have the power of infinite vision.

Name origin

Ninetales is a combination of nine and tales, which is either a corruption of tails or refers to Ninetales's origin as a Japanese myth. It also could possibly be a reference to the cat o' nine tails whip, which was historically used in military punishments.

Kyukon is a combination of 九 kyū (nine) and 恨 kon (grudge), which refers to the curse that Vulpix and Ninetales may cast on their foes. This is also reflected in Vulpix, which learns Grudge. Alternatively, it can be read as 旧恨 (old grudge). Kon may also refer to the Japanese onomatopoeia kon kon, which is the sound that foxes make. Furthermore, a コンロ konro is a gas burner stove. Also, an alternate reading of the Japanese word for fox, 狐 kitsune, is ko.